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And, void of modesty and thought,
She follows Bibo's endless draught.
Through the soft sex again she ranges ;
As youth, caprice, or fashion, changes.
Fair Alma, careless and ferene,

In Fanny's (prightly eyes is seen ;

While they diffuse their infant beams,
Themselves not conscious of their flames.
Again fair Alma fits confest

On Florimel's experter breast;
When she the rising figh constrains,
And by concealing fpeaks her pains.
In Cynthia's neck fair Alma glows,
When the vain thing her jewels fhows:
When Jenny's ftays are newly lac'd,
Fair Alma plays about her waist ;
And when the fwelling hoop sustains
The rich brocade, fair Alma deigns
Into that lower space to enter,
Of the large round herself the centre.

Again that fingle limb or feature
(Such is the cogent force of nature),
Which most did Alma's passion move
In the first object of her love,
For ever will be found confeft,
And printed on the amorous breast.
O Abelard, ill-fated youth,
Thy tale will justify this truth:
But well I weet, thy cruel wrong
Adorns a nobler poet's fong.

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290 Dan

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Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd,
With kind concern and fkill has weav'd
A filken web; and ne'er fhall fade
Its colours; gently has he laid
The mantle o'er thy fad distress:

And Venus fhall the texture blefs.
He o'er the weeping nun has drawn
Such artful folds of facred lawn;
That love, with equal grief and pride,
Shall fee the crime he ftrives to hide;
And, foftly drawing back the veil,
The God fhall to his votaries tell

Each conscious tear, each blushing grace,
That deck'd dear Eloifa's face.

Happy the poet, bleft the lays,

Which Buckingham has deign'd to praise !
Next, Dick, as youth and habit fways,

A hundred gambols Alma plays.
If, whilst a boy, Jack ran from school,
Fond of his hunting-horn and pole;
Though gout and age his fpeed detain,
Old John halloos his hounds again :
By his fire fide he starts the hare;
And turns her in his wicker-chair:
His feet, however lame, you find,
the better of his mind.

Have

got

If, while the mind was in her leg,

The dance affected nimble Peg;

Old Madge, bewitch'd at fixty-one,

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Calls for Green Sleeves, and Jumping Joan.

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In

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From Lincoln's-inn, to Goldfmith's-hall,.
All Christmas long away fhe trudges;
Trips it with prentices and judges:
In vain her children urge her ftay;
And age or palley bar the way.
But, if thofe images prevail
Which whilom did affect the tail,
She still renews the ancient fcene, -
Forgets the forty years between :

Aukwardly gay, and oddly merry,

Her fcarf pale pink, her head-knot cherry ;

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O'er-heated with ideal rage,

She cheats her fon, to wed her page.

If Alma, whilft the man was young,

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Slipp'd up too foon into his tongue:
Pleas'd with his own fantastic skill,
He lets that weapon ne'er lie ftill.
On any point if you difpute;

Depend upon it, he'll confute ::

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Change fides; and you increase your pain`;
For he 'll confute you back again.

For one may speak with Tully's tongue;
Yet all the while be in the wrong.

And 'tis remarkable that they

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Talk moft, who have the least to say.
Your dainty speakers have the curse,
To plead bad caufes down to worse :
As dames, who native beauty want,
Still uglier look, the more they paint.

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"Again: if in the female fex

"Alma fhould on this member fix

(A cruel and a defperate cafe,

From which heaven fhield my lovely laís !);

For evermore all care is vain,

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That would bring Alma down again.

As, in habitual gout or stone,

The only thing that can be done,

Is to correct your drink and diet, And keep the inward foe in quiet; ≥ So, if for any fins of ours

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* Or our forefathers, higher powers, Severe though just, afflict our life With that prime ill, a talking wife;

"..Till death fhall bring the kind relief,

We must be patient, or be deaf.

You know a certain lady, Dick,
Who faw me when I laft was fick :
: She kindly talk'd, at least three hours,
Of plastic forms, and mental powers;
> Defcrib'd our pre-existing station
Before this vile terrene creation;

And, left. I-fhould be weary'd, madam,
To cut things fhort, came down to Adam;
From whence, as faft as fhe was able,

She drowns the world, and builds up Babel :
Through Syria, Perfia, Greece, she goes;
And takes the Romans in the clofe.

But we'll defcant on general nature:
This is a fyftem, not a fatire.

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Turn

Turn we this globe; and let us fee
How different nations disagree

In what we wear, or eat and drink ;
Nay, Dick, perhaps in what we think.
In water as you smell and tafte

The foils through which it rose and past;
In Alma's manners you may read
The place where she was born and bred.

One people from their swaddling bands
Releas'd their infants' feet and hands:
Here Alma to these limbs was brought;
And Sparta's offspring kick'd and fought.
Another taught their babes to talk,
Ere they could yet in go-carts walk :
There Alma fettled in the tongue :
And orators from Athens fprung.

Obferve but in these neighbouring lands

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The different use of mouths and hands;

As men repos'd their various hopes,
In battles these, and those in tropes.

In Britain's ifles, as Heylin notes,
The ladies trip in petticoats;

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Which, for the honour of their nation,
They quit but on fome great occafion.

Men there in breeches clad you view :
They claim that garment as their due.
In Turkey the reverse appears;
Long coats the haughty husband wears;
And greets his wife with angry fpeeches,

If the be feen without her breeches.

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